ouch back to zumba and drinking sand

Yesterday was my first day back to Zumba. It was pretty painful but I huffed and puffed my way thru it. My hair was soaking wet, and it was really cold outside so that sucked. The cement was hard as.....well cement and my feet ached last nite. I think my body atrophied, I mean I can't reach or stretch...or basically move much more than from bed to couch to car to leaning on the shopping cart to car, well you get it. I mean I take the dogs to the beach but it's easy for me not to walk much and let them run around.

So today I took Sam & Hazel down to the new place and measured the bedroom and I think that carpet is going to fit perfect, so I have my fingers crossed (ok not literally) that it didn't seel yesterday afternoon or today and we'll go back tomorrow and try to get it. Well Sam was really bugging me to go down to the beach, and I had lots of doggy guilt cause yesterday we were gone almost all day and they only got the walk around the neighborhood walk, and I didn't really have anything else I had to do, so we walked down to the beach. I brought a plastic chair I saw outside and my book and stopped just after the end of the path. Hazel ran around like the crazy puppy she is. Jumping straight up, digging holes, running in circles...but Sam stayed by me. Sill dog- he won't walk down to the water unless I go as well. I hope to teach him that he doesn't need me to go down to the water's edge and have some fun. I sat there reading for almost half an hour, and it was so cool. A couple walked by down by the water, and of course Hazel the welcoming committee ran down to them and then sprinted back up, but Sam stayed close. They waved and I realized I was that person I envied when I walked on the beach, that person sitting under a floppy hat (which I was wearing by the way), reading and watching my dogs play, watching the waves, no hurry, not long hike back to the car or the house. I felt very cool for a minute there ha ha! Anyway I'm hoping f I keep sitting there that Sam will start to see he can venture down on his own. I did give and walk down to the water before we left, and he ran around and got all wet, so then we stayed at the house for another half hour so they could dry off a little. It's only about a 5 min drive from the new place back to the current place. Hazel was digging holes in the sand and knocked over my water bottle a couple of times but it was closed so no big deal.

Ok skip ahead to day 2 of zumba. Almost harder than yesterday, except I did not try to keep up as hard as I tried yesterday. But the warm up song was long and I was really breathing hard by the end and I reached for my water bottle, unscrewed the cap and gulped....sand! Not a mouthful but enough to have crunchy-ness in my mouth and in my teeth. I silently cursed Hazel and jumped into the next song. And it was cold again but tonite I had on a pull over sweatshirt with a hood so I wasn't as cold. In a couple of weeks I should build up some wind, and maybe get some movement back, then I can push harder and really dance thru the class, then I should stay warm....but for now....ow! Tonite there was only about 6 women, and really 2 of them had to be under 16. The rest were 20-30 and of course there were sevearal toddlers (maybe age 2), and a couple of dogs running around during the class. But I learned about that and got used to it in Penasco so it's really easy to just ignore. But I remember in Penasco when I joined the class and these kiddies would run up to their moms or try to dance it would bug me, but slowly I got over it. I do still think though, that Mexico could really benefit from birth control. These gilrs are so young having kids- babies having babies. I'm so glad my Drewy waited, she's 28, and as for my younger daughter as far as I know there's no kids in her near future plans. Kids have to grow up so fast here; you always see the older kids taking care of the younger ones, and everybody has at least 4 kids..ok maybe that's not true, but it's at least my experience. I have a feeling that maybe those who are better off, (richer- the upper class) have fewer kids, but that's just a guess. But I like the class so far, I like the steps and as always after exercising I always always feel good...feel up- those endorphins kicking in.

It's still dark at 6pm, so coming home from zumba is a short drive, but both nites I had cars coming at me with their brights on- I hate that! But here, lots of people may only have the brights, or they have only one headlight, and one tail light, and maybe or maybe not, brake lights. There's no laws about smog and so some cars smoke like a chimney, some are super loud, and the way people drive is nuts! I think in Ensenada, in the city, people drive better. They obey the stop signs and kinda obey the lights, it's like if you were waiting but it changes to red as you're getting there- well you still get to go (ha ha). So you have to be really careful, but out here, people just go, they come into the road from a side street without even looking...it's tough to drive here. The one thing I do really like is how the stoplights work (semaforo) Before a green light changes to yellow, it starts blinking- it blinks 3 times then hits yellow, then red. So you know yellow is coming- I like it. In Penasco people obeyed the lights but ran all the stop signs. In Ensenada the stop signs are obeyed, but people are not much on blinkers. The middle lane is the safest on the main road we drive on, and on other roads, when there's only 2 lanes people make extra lanes and go around you so you always gotta be watching.

Ok about this house. Couple of things. First, apparently Irka came by yesterday when we were not here planning to show the house to potential renters. I don't like that, don't just come into our home when we aren't here, please give us advance notice- and ASK us! A neighbor told us she came by, but she didn't call or anything- so this morning I received an email from her telling me she brought people by but our dogs were out so they were unable to view the house. Then she did ask what time Friday afternoon would work for us so she could show it and would we please restrain our dogs or take them for a walk. I was pissed so I didn't reply for a few hours. In the end I merely replied with "Ah good to know our dogs are doing their job! Friday at 2 will be fine." She's just such a bitch. But I don't want to spend too much time talking about her because she's a bitch and will always be a bitch and we will just avoid her in the future. So the next thing is- Felipe Sr is back. According to all the talk he is one of the thieves. He was also a problem when we first got here by parking his truck in front of the gate and telling is we had to pay him to use his road. Everardo came inside and cooled off, then when the guy approached him again he just talked to him and then they guy said ok well since you paid my sister. Yeah a family of crooks. I think he may be hiding from the cops or the feds because he's parking his truck by our gate but living down by the entrance to the beach where his evil devil sister lives. If we weren't moving this would be upsetting news. And when he chatted Everardo up yesterday, Everardo did not tell him we were leaving, so he will think he has lots of time to rip us off.

Then a couple of hours ago, right before I left for zumba some other ruckus started down by the devil woman's and cops showed up and arrested somebody. It was not related to the return of Felipe Sr, Everardo found out while I was gone that it was something about a land/house feud; a woman who boyfriend (I think) died and he owned the house, she went to court to get the property and lost...but how Laura thought it is now hers is a story I don't know. So there were a  bunch of people and some cops, when Everardo was watching Laura (the devil) was screaming at someone and got in the face of a guy in a truck and he threw a punch at her, and the cops did nothing. They are all crazy! Did I say yippee we're leaving? Anyway I guess the guy who lives in the house by the entrance to the camp got arrested- I have no idea why he was involved, I assume to be on the lady's side because he hates the devil and her family. Last year he got into an argument with Felipe Sr and Felipe jr snuck up behind him and hit him with a shovel! And they all got arrested and the victim was forced to apologize in order to be released. Did I say they are all crazy.

Now Everardo is thinking about asking the new place if we can move in a few days early. Yippee again- that's what I want! Maybe we could move in this weekend, which would be 5 days early if we move in on Sunday....but we still have to get the dish and phone/internet moved over, but we're planning to call them on Friday. We need some paint, purple and red I think to start, but I think we're ready. Oh boy, new adventure.

Viva!

It's different than deep in Mexico here....

Baja, or at least this close to the border is different than further into Mexico. I guess all the border towns are probably like this. Penasco is even more different. I think Arizona believes that Penasco is a part of Arizona. For example, last August when we were still there, I went to an AA convention..and it was so wierd, it was not publicized in Penasco...oh and they all call it Rocky Point. So Puerto Penasco has 2 names. The convention was all people from Arizona, they all knew each other- it was kinda like a vacation conference. Never been to an AA conference like that! And none of them ever left the hotel (ok maybe 99%- somebody must have explored), but the people I chatted with said why leave? We have the beach, the pools, a store in the hotel...they had everything...so why leave? I was dumbfounded! Well maybe because your in Mexico??? Another country...ok so back to Baja...

We have been hitting the segundas because the mobile home we're moving into has no furniture, no curtains, no nuthin'. At first it was a a bit of a surprise with how much they wanted for used furniture- couches, loveseats, standing lamps, clothes dressers, etc. We looked and looked and ended up doing ok, but still seemed a little expensive. Ok well then we went to Home Dept in Ensenada. Big shock! I actually saw a standing lamp, very simple, for $1700+ pesos. That's about $136!! They had thin wood chest of drawers, no handles, 3 drawers for more than 2000 pesos. ($160)...Other things the same (in fact as I write this I think that price for the lamp had to be wrong...) The point is the prices for everything is very high- higher than the states. The same for Wallmart & Costco. So no wonder the prices at the segundas are high.

There are so many Americans and Canadians down here- at least this far, not sure about further south since we have only been on one little day trip south- but they will pay anything and they shop in Home Depot and Costco. One terrible thing is here, in Punta Banda, it's basically an expat town (all English speakers), and they have alot of little businesses here, cafe's restaurants, gift shops, thrift stores (our version of segundas) and the stuff if REALLY expensive. The food is insane...we don't go out to eat here unless its the taco stands..There's this local email newsletter here and today I read a woman selling hard back books for $10US each! I mean they sell stuff that I wouldn't pay that much for it in the states. The Mexicans, well when they see me coming, everything is twice as much. I have to spot things and then send Everardo in.

Back in 1994 I went to Africa for 2 weeks. It was a cool gift from my mom- the tickets- for graduating college. She had gone to Kenya and really wanted me to have the experience. I went to Mombique, and then got to go to South Africa to the Kruger, which is a huge wild animal sanctuary. The "safari" which I think is called a picture safari, is different then Kenya where at the time my mom went, the jeeps drove wherever they wanted looking for and/or chasing animals. In the Kruger you had to stay on the road; if you saw wild life, lucky you, if not, unlucky you. We saw everything! The second day I saw a lion that had just killed an antelope. It was an awesome awesome trip. My ex husband's brother in law was in Mozambique building roads for the government, in a country that just finished a 10 year civil war. We did not go out at night, you couldn't just hike or walk anywhere because there were still landmines all over the place. But we did visit the towns, and there were these beautiful people selling all kinds of things. Same problem! I had to point out what I wanted to Aisa and then he would go negotiate. I still have the carved box- I chose one for me and one for Drewy and some other things. It was also the first time I saw a little kid shimmy up a tree and cut off a coconut, slide down, whack it open and give me the water. It was a beautiful heartbreaking trip. The poverty, the broken children...the kind of eye opening trip I need, I think that everybody needs...everybody meaning people from the states, where we are so spoiled, we take so much for granted...ok I digress... the point of this story was that in a foreign country, I have to have someone else shop for me or i will pay for everybody's kids college education ha ha!

So it's an interesting mix between Mexicans and foreigners here. Unfortunately sometimes it's who can screw who the most. I can see from the Mexican side, from people who have next to nothing, people who are so poor. The wages for working in the fields all day..12-14 hours at least is 150 pesos a day (about $12US) and they work 6 days a week. A lot of jobs around here pay that way. There is almost no middle class, probly NO middle class for Mexicans, here, nice houses and shacks with no plumbing. Ok that's everywhere in Mexico, but not so many expats in many places, to be able to charge more for things.
There's alot of nice houses out here since it's a vacation/retirement area for expats, and things are expensive here. We tend to shop for small things in Maneadero which is a Mexican town about 10 minutes inland going towards Ensenada. We go there for the doctor, and Hazel needs shots so we'll go find a vet over there, too. Rents are cheaper there as well, but you can't beat what we got and right at the beach. Playa Ventura had no expats except me, so everything was affordable. Just a little too remote for me. Anyway it's interesting. Oh- and today I started a new zumba class- and I am the only English speaker. What's really funny is the location- it's the patio behind the very first house we looked at here- but it was on this guy's property and they were a little too close. Ha ha really glad we're not there now! But the class was fun- ok totally painful because I haven't done any exercise for more than 3 months..so I died thru it, but- it's only 10 pesos (less than a buck) per class, 5 days a week. The other class I tried, was a Mexican teacher, but Americans in the class, and $3US per class! And it was not really zumba. So this class was fun and if I can walk I'll go back tomorrow. I really loved zumba 5 days a week in Penasco so I hope that's what happens here.


This morning we went into Ensenada to go to Telnor to get our bill explained, and to find a dresser, actually to go back and buy one we saw for 500 pesos, but when we got there, it was no longer on top of something else and I realized how small it was (ha ha). Anyway Everardo is still getting over the cold I had for 2 weeks and in my opinion he's pushing it and that's why he keeps on feeling shitty. This morning he didn't feel great but still wanted to go. When we first got here we went to McDonald's a couple of times because we hadn't had it in a year and a half, but we mostly come on Saturday mornings for the noon AA meeting and we found the best enchiladas....... in the world... right around the corner so we usually go there, or Everardo gets carnitas, which I only like at night. Anyway we decided that because the phone company was near the McDonalds we'd go there for breakfast (which is the only meal we like there). We walk in a little after 11am and no breakfast! I ask him if he wants to go somewhere else and he says no. So I order a big mac and fries, no drink, and he asks for my drink as oj. They have a fast conversation (too fast for me) and then I go to the bathroom and when I get back to the table there's my food and nothing for him. He said he didn't want a hamburger. AAARRRGGHHH I thought I offered to go somewhere else??? I did not want a burger either, but he said this was fine and I thought- (there's my problem-thinking) that since he didn't feel good I didn't want to make him go somewhere else. Like I said aarrgghh. I know it's on me, but sometimes it's just so frustrating to not know what just transpired.

After that we went to Telnor to understand why our bill is higher every time...and found out it's really expensive to call a cell phone long distance but free to call a landline. While Everardo's brother was sick he called the cell, and when he got home after the funeral he did the same thing. Ooops. Yeah it's funny about the telephone system here. Telnor is Telmex and I don't know why Telmex has a different name in Baja, but everything else is the same. But the overall system must be antiquated because there are all these differnent ways you have to dial. Cell to cell, local or long distance is all 7 numbers (like area code and the number). Landline to landline local is just 7 numbers, and long distance is area code and number. Landline to local cell is 044 then all 10 numbers, and landline to long distance cell is 045 and all 10 numbers. Ha ha I don't know what long distance cell to landline is! How do you know if you are calling a cell or a landline? Why isn't it transparent to the phone company?

Ok after that fun, it was off to the segundas, the secret segundas we has been looking for since we got here. Well today we found them; it's a couple of square blocks with alley ways and they sell all kinds of stuff, like the other segundas on Reforma going south out of town on the way to where we live. We did find a carpet that might work for our bedroom. The floor in there is a mess, tiles and then just wood, really bad, and if we could put one huge carpet that would be great. We're going to measure the room tomorrow- and I think the carpet was 9 feet long, not sure about the width, but she was only asking us 300 pesos ($24US). We also bought a brand new standing lamp with a really pretty glass top for 200 pesos. Her place was very reasonably priced, oh and she gave me a cute snowman I was lovin'. Of course Everardo asked the price of the lamp before I walked in.....we also finally found a nice chest of drawers for 450 pesos, but someone painted it black so we're gonna have to repaint- either purple or bright red I think. This mobile home is small and kinda banged up, so I want to make it cozy, make it cute, make it us, and I think we're doing that. I already love the living room more than any of the 3 places we've lived in Mexico. Smallest, but coziest.

Sam and Hazel approve. The beach is so close and lots of room to nose around. I let them explore and they always came running back. Well Sam I never worry about, but that little crazy Hazel....we move in 10 days from now, and are taking small loads every couple of days. Yeah today we also bought one of those wood rods for hanging your clothes, and one of those shelves you put in the bathroom- they go behind the toilet and have a couple of shelves above...need it for towels, not a ton of room in the bathrooms, they do have sinks with cabinets but I don't want to put towels in there. We have a wood shelf Everardo built for towels but I it's too big for either bathroom. We also have a tall standing shelf, and a long 2 shelf for pictures and decorations, and Everardo sanded them all so we can paint them. Purple I think for the shelves.

So it was a successful day and I think we have all the basics to move in. We have walked all over Ensenada and I'm so happy now we never found a place to rent there. Our puppy dogs will be so much happier here.

OK well that's all for now. Viva!